


The Prophesy of Sons

by fezsoup



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Angst, F/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:09:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24842812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fezsoup/pseuds/fezsoup
Summary: Quark receives word of a rare amulet that is set to fetch him a great deal of money. Unfortunately, he cannot leave the station at the right time to get it so Jake, Nog and Ziyal decide to help him and go get the amulet themselves. But they are not the only ones after it. A deep web of prophesy and lies surrounds the rare artifact, will Jake be able to fulfil his role as the Son of the Emissary?
Relationships: Jake Sisko/Tora Ziyal
Comments: 8
Kudos: 6





	1. Trip to Regala Nebula

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jake, Nog and Ziyal spend some time together at their favourite, and stations only, bar. They run into a very distressed Quark and decide to listen to his troubles.

‘Dabo!’ shouted an excited Bolian from a couple of tables away. Jake turned to watch him scoop his winnings into a round peat-coloured bag and took a sip of his root beer. 

‘I’m glad Jolar finally won something, here’s been here every day this week. Poor guy.’ said Jake, turning back to his table.

‘Good for him’ Ziyal said, without looking up. She was drinking a Tarkalean tea and making quick sweeps of charcoal on a taut cream canvas. 

‘How can you even work in this racket Ziyal?’ asked Nog as he approached the table with a snail juice in his hand. 

‘Hmmm’ replied Ziyal, suddenly enrapt with a particular section of her art. Ziyal had always found the chaotic ambient background of Quarks' to be comforting. The usual sounds were of laughter and chatter between friends and occasional euphoric cries of 'Dabo!' . The warmth of the people and the soft hazy scent of ale felt a warm cloak on her anxious shoulders. Despite no longer being enslaved by Breen, the years of hypervigilance was hard to shake. Quarks' bar was among the few places on the station she felt at ease enough to paint. 

Jake laughed, ‘You’ll have to wait till she comes out of her trance now Nog!’ he smiled and watched as she fervently swiped her coal-coated fingers across the canvas, brows knitted. Occasionally back-handing an errant lock of black hair. ‘This happens sometimes’ he said quietly. ‘Like I lose her to the world of charcoal’

Nog looked at his friend sympathetically and smiled, he could tell what Jake was feeling as he watched him steal glances at Ziyal from behind his PADD. ‘Well what are you working on Jake?’ 

‘Not much really, I just finished my latest writing piece for a short story journal on Earth. Just trying to come up with my next idea.’

‘That’s great! Well, maybe you could write about Bajor or the station?’

‘Like a... history piece?’

‘Sure! I mean I read an article about Bajor's ancient artifacts in my ancient civilisations course at the academy. ’ he paused to take a sip of his snail juice. 'And it said that Bajor was looking at repatriating up to 70 percent of stolen archaeological artifacts by the end of the year' 

‘Hmm, you know Nog, that’s not a bad idea! I can ask Major Kira if she knows any preservationist on Bajor I can talk to’

Behind their table an irate Quark stormed by. ‘I just cannot believe my luck! This always happens to me. Nothing good can ever happen to Quark.’ He slammed a case of something the boys hoped wasn’t too fragile on the bar. 

Ziyal looked up sharply at the sound. ‘What was that?’ she said. Jake noticed a smudge of black just above her left eyebrow and chuckled.

‘Uncle Quark does not sound happy’ said Nog putting down his drink. ‘I’d better go see what the problem is.’ 

‘Looks like you won’t have to’ said Ziyal and looked pointedly at Quark as he walked towards their table. 

‘Hello Nog, nice to see you still remember your old uncle.’ said Quark.

‘Of course! How could I forget?’ said Nog, sensing a reprimand was imminent. 

‘Well, seeing as you only visit your family once or twice a year’ he paused to look indignantly at Nog. ‘Makes me wonder whether you’ve forgotten we even exist.’ 

‘I-well- ’

‘Those Starfleet types I tell you. Teaching you those awful hewmon values. Soon you won’t to see your old uncle at all!’ 

‘No I-l’ attempted Nog before he was cut off again.

‘Noooo’ he droned. ‘Much to busy for us! What next? Too busy to make a profit?’ he looked at the ceiling in mock despair.

‘Uncle! It’s the academy! They keep us so busy I barely get time to sleep let alone visit!’ Nog complained knowing he wasn’t truly the cause of his Uncle’s bad mood.

Ziyal sighed, seeing through Quarks feigned annoyance like glass. ‘What’s the actual problem here Quark?’ she asked. The boys stifled a giggle. Quark raised an eyebrow but relented. 

‘Well if you must know’ he spun a chair from the neighbouring table towards them and sat down. ‘It all started two days ago.’ 

‘Oh boy here we go’ muttered Nog under his breath.

‘I had a shipment of Terrelian cabbage soup coming into the cargo bay and everything was going accordingly to plan. Then I met Bolian called Thoran…’ Quark continued on in this vein, for 25 minutes of detailed talk about various financial transactions and trade deals. Jake and Nog were regretting their decision to come into the bar at all. Ziyal was just as engrossed in her canvas as before, only occasionally offering monosyllabic reactions to Quarks tales of woe. ‘And anyway finally,’ said Quark taking a breath. Jake leaned forward eager to reach an end to this story.

‘I have double booked myself for a deal of a lifetime, Thoran’s ex-wife’s chiropractor’s best friend knows a collector on Bajor who wants this…’ he gestured vaguely with his hands. ‘Amulet of eternity or something and the dealer who has this famous amulet is going to be in this sector tomorrow, he's passing through the Regala nebula. For one day only! BUT on that very same day my favourite idiot _Rom_ , oh no offence Nog.’

‘None taken, carry on’ 

‘Uh right, Rom booked me in for my annual health and safety inspection with Odo. Now I tried to get Odo to change his schedule but you know what he’s like.’ Quark took a big sip of Nog’s snail juice. ‘As stubborn as a Rigellian Ox!’ he slammed the glass back down. ‘And I can’t exactly change the freighter schedule of a trade ship! That damned Odo.’ Quark sighed heavily and placed his head in his hands. ‘That amulet was going to fetch 120 bars of gold pressed latinum’ he mumbled into his hands. Nogs ears pricked up at the sound of that price. Starfleet or not, he was still a Ferengi. 

‘120 bars Uncle?’ said Nog, incredulous.

‘Yes boy, 120 bars. Not that it matters, I’m going to have to call off the rendezvous with Thoran’s ex-wife’s -’ started Quark.

‘No!’ shouted Nog, partly because he did not want to hear that particular list of extended contacts for the hundredth time, but mostly because he had an idea. 

‘You said a collector on Bajor wanted this amulet right?’ asked Nog.

‘Yes’ replied Quark.

‘Well, that must mean it has some cultural and historical significance’ said Nog.

‘Yeah!’ said Jake, catching on to what Nog was leading to.

‘SO?’ said Quark, to upset to connect the dots.

‘ _So_ , if we ask the captain, I’m sure he would be happy to lend us a runabout for the recovery of an important Bajoran artifact’ said Nog, completing his thought.

Quark looked up, the glint of latinum back in his eye. ‘And you boys,-oh and lady’ he motioned towards Ziyal. ‘Are willing to go to the rendezvous point while I suffer at the hands of Bajor's favourite changeling?’

‘For a price.’ replied Nog.

‘Of course, lets say…’ Quark paused. ‘Hmm, how does 5 percent of profits sound?’

‘Make it 25’

‘10’

‘20’

‘15, that’s my final offer’ retorted Quark.

Jake and Nog shared a look of agreement between them. 

‘Deal!’ said the boys in unison. 

‘And you Ziyal?’ asked Jake. ‘Would you like to join us? Wanna make a quick 2 bars?’. 

Ziyal looked up from her canvas. ‘Which nebula did you say this rendezvous was happening in?’

The question confused the boys, but this time Quark understood.

‘Ah yes. The Regala nebula, renowned for its beautiful jewel toned-gas clouds and shimmering proto-stars. Perfect place to visit for a young artist like yourself.’

Ziyal smiled. ‘I would love to come, Nerys gave me a new holo-camera for my birthday and I’ve been dying to try it out on something spectacular like that nebula!’ beamed Ziyal, for once fully focused on the current conversation. 

‘Well.’ said Jake smiling, ‘Looks like I’ve found my story! The return of a lost jewel of Bajor.’


	2. U.S.S Ganges

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang manage to convince Captain Sisko to let them use a runabout for their rendevous in the Regala Nebula. Sisko receives some troubling news.

Nog sat at the controls of the USS Ganges. 

‘You sure you know how to work one of these’ joked Jake in the seat next to Nog. He was entering the co-ordinates of the Regala nebula into the system.

‘Trust me Jake, after the amount simulations they put you through in the academy, I could fly one of these babies in my sleep.’ 

‘Good to know.’ said Ziyal. She was seated on the other side of Nog. Jake noticed how she had tied her hair into one long braid that fell past her hips as she walked towards the replicator. She wore a neat pink dress embroidered with small red blossoms. He watched as her grey hands absently-mindedly ruffled the fabric as she often did when she was lost in thought. Nog nudged Jake sharply in the ribs.

‘Ow!’ 

‘You’re staring again’ he whispered.

‘Oh. Thanks.’ Jake felt his face become hot and looked ahead at the view screen quickly. 

He remembered the first day he saw Ziyal, all those years ago. On their favourite spot in the promenade, the boys sat with their legs dangling over the edge of the walkway. Below them, a bustling population of colourful aliens went about their daily business. The boys loved this spot for many reasons, chief among which was that it served as a perfect vantage point for observing newcomers to the station. One of main corridors connecting the promenade to the many docking ports was within perfect viewing distance. They had spent many a lazy afternoon idly chatting about nothing and everything as best friends are often wont to do. This particular afternoon, Jake found himself introducing Nog to the concept of popcorn for the first time. Nog in turn, upon deciding this _popped corn_ was tasteless and bland, began launching them at whomever was unfortunate enough to be walking below them. He watched in delight at their confusion at the sudden aerial assault. 

A familiar figure caught Jake’s eye. Major Kira appeared out of the docking port corridor and with her was a girl he did not recognise. ‘Hey Nog look at that. Is she a Cardassian?’. Nog stopped his popcorn hurling for a second to glance in the direction Jake was looking at. 

‘Oh, that must be Tora Ziyal. I heard Uncle Quark mention her when he was making a deal with some Cardassian on the subspace line.’

‘But there’s something else about her, I can’t tell from up here but there’s something different about her. I mean compared to other Cardassians, you know?’

‘Hmm, you mean how you clearly have a crush on this girl?’ Nog bounced his eyebrows, jokingly. 

‘No! I mean I don’t even know her. It’s just..’ he trailed of and twisted in his seat trying to get a better view as she walked down the promenade. Her eyes were filled with wonder as she glanced around the variety of establishments that existed on the station. Major Kira, gestured towards the Replimat and they both disappeared into the restaurant. It could have been the lighting, or the distance but Jake could have sworn she had nose ridges. Bajoran nose ridges?

‘I heard she’s Gul Dukat’s daughter.’ said Nog after a while, returning to his popcorn throwing.

‘What! No way wha-’ Jake started.

‘JAKE! NOG!’ Odo’s booming angry tones startled the boys.

‘Oh no! Evasive manoeuvres Jake’ laughed Nog, jumping up from their spot.

‘Warp 5 engage!’ shouted back Jake, and the boys took off down the corridor like a Galaxy class ship their arms whirling to imitate the warp nacelles.

The sound of Ziyal’s voice snapped Jake out of his reverie. 

‘Tarkalean tea, please’ she spoke gently into the replicator. Jake smiled at her kindness towards a machine that was not equipped to understand. He knew she was aware of this, and yet was polite to a fault all the same. 

‘You boys want a drink?’ she asked, as the golden brown liquid materialised in front of her. 

‘We’re all good here’ came the reply from Nog. ‘Almost set to go!’

Nog entered the final commands into the console and the runabouts engines came to life in a low rumble. Ziyal sat back in her seat, her hands cradling the warm tea. They watched as the station grew smaller behind them. 

* * *

A metallic notification ping sounded from the desk of Benjamin Sisko. He was skimming over the latest criminal activity reports sent to him by Odo. Details of petty theft and rowdy behaviour on the promenade rarely captured his attention. He was initially thankful for the interruption, until he saw what it was about. 

“Incoming distress call. USS Ganges, Captain to Ops ” the message read. 

Sisko bounded into Ops, nearly knocking over a passing ensign. 

‘Major, report!’ he barked.

‘Captain, we received this distress call from within the Regala nebula’ she pulled a map onto the viewscreen. A little pinprick of red light marked the position of the runabout. ‘Nog said they were ambushed by Tholian ships. The Tholians were using the ionising radiation of the nebula to hide from the Ganges sensors.’ She spared a quick glance at Sisko, his face was ashen. 

‘Tholians? Damn. What are they doing so far out of Tholian space?’

‘Nog managed to get one more message out before we lost contact’ said Kira, typing furiously into the console. ‘He thinks the Tholians might be after the Bajoran artifact.’

Sisko slammed his fist onto the console. ‘This was supposed to be a routine mission.’ he said, mostly to himself. ‘What could the Tholians _possibly_ want from an ancient Bajoran neckace?’

‘We have information on their last known whereabouts, Benjamin’ said Dax. ‘Looks like they were headed towards a dense gas cloud. That should help mask their impulse trail for a while. We can get the Defiant there in 2 hours at maximum warp.’ She paused. ‘We’ll get them back Ben.’

Sisko nodded in acknowledgement. ‘Dax, Worf prep the Defiant for departure, we leave in 30 minutes.’ 

‘Captain’ said Kira her face was lined with concern. ‘Permission to join the Defiant?’

In all his stress he had forgotten Ziyal was on board the Ganges too. ‘Of course Major. Miles, you have Ops’ replied Sisko, making his way to the turbolift.


	3. Neutral Hydrogen Cloud

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The trio find themselves in a skirmish in the heart of the Regala Nebula.

A large blast sounded outside the hull as Nog veered the craft through the nebula. He wiped the sweat off his brow and focused on navigating through the shimmering clouds. Quark hadn’t lied when he described the nebula’s beauty. It shone around them in a myriad of colours. Bright hot proto-stars illuminated the clouds with a diffuse white light, causing the colours to glitter like the iridescent wings of a Mordian butterfly.  
Tholians were hot on their tail, firing a volley of torpedoes and only occasionally missing. 

‘Shields at 20 percent!’ Jake shouted over the crashing of battle. Another shock hit the craft and sparks rained down from overhead. 

‘That last shot took out secondary life support!’ said Ziyal, who was working reconnecting the com lines. She had removed some of the deck plating to isolate the communication fault, and was sitting in a sea of spare parts, PADDs of information and handful of isolinear rods. Ziyal diligently poured over the manual in front of her, following instructions entitled ‘Communication Grid Manual Restart’. She was glad she had taken up Chief O’Brien’s offer to learn some basic circuitry. To her the intricate connections and the flow of current felt like art. She was extremely drawn to patterns; in whatever form she could find. The anxiety of the situation evoked a sudden memory of a cave-in from her time in the Breen mines. She pushed it aside as she inserted an isolinear rod. Focusing on the puzzle of circuitry allowed her to remain remarkably calm despite the chaos around her. 

Another crashing bang hit the ship, rattling the passengers within. The viewscreen flickered but held up. 

‘Jake have you managed to re-align the targeting sensors’ asked Nog, agitated. His frustration at not having spotted the Tholians earlier grew steadily with each hit they took.

‘Yeah, er I think’ replied Jake.

‘Great, aim for their weapons and fire at will!’

Jake hurriedly aligned the sensors and fired a series of shots, none of which penetrated their Tholians shields. The boys shared a look of growing concern. 

‘I’ve got comms operation!’ shouted Ziyal, sliding the deck plating back into place. ‘And looks like we’ve got an incoming hail from our friends out there’. She jumped back into her seat in front of the console.

‘Put it through to the viewscreen’ said Nog.

A crystalline entity glowered at them; it had a multifaceted body from which a deep orange glow emanated. Ziyal felt a shiver run through her, she had never seen a non-humanoid alien before. It had two white hot spots about third of the way down its face, a facsimile of eyes. Though whether they served that function was unknown to her. 

The image on the screen had a blurred quality, photons twisted by the heat of the air around it. Jake was reminded of a trip to the desert with his father, the rising heat had caused the appearance of water ahead of them, a mirage. 

The creature attempted to speak.

‘AHHG!’ Nog clutched his ears in pain as a sharp series of shrieks and clicks came through the speakers.

‘Looks like the universal translator databases were hit’ said Ziyal, her hands rapidly flying over the console. ‘Just needs a couple seconds to reinitialise…Got it!’

The shrieking wails stopped, and a robotic voice sounded from the glowing creature. ‘Lower your shields. You are in possession of an item of great importance to the Tholian Empire. Release it to us or we will be forced to destroy your ship.’

‘Who am I speaking to? This is the USS Ganges, we are a Federation ship and-’ 

‘We know who you are. That is of little relevance to us’ the creature said. ‘Comply with our demands and you will not be hurt.’

‘Why do you want an ancient Bajoran artifact?’ asked Nog. He glanced over at Jake then Ziyal, both of whom seemed equally perplexed. 

‘That is not relevant. Lower your shields.’ 

Nog swiped his hand under his chin, motioning to Ziyal to cut the feed. 

‘Right’ said Nog. ‘Any ideas?’ 

‘Erm. Other than just give them the amulet? That’s presumably what they mean.’ said Jake.

‘But how do you know they won’t just kill us anyway? Stop us from following them?’ said Ziyal.

Another hit shook the runabout, Nog expertly sunk the ship deeper into a gas cloud. ‘Right now, we have a strategic advantage.’ replied Nog straining to listen to his friends and pilot the craft at the same time. ‘They won’t risk destroying our runabout if we still have the amulet on board.’ As the sole member of Starfleet aboard the runabout, if only as a cadet, the others deferred to his experience to make any final decisions. 

Nog programmed a random path through the cloud. ‘This part of the neutral hydrogen cloud is pretty dense, it should mask our engine trail for a couple minutes’ he paused, only momentarily relieved. ‘Ziyal, can you determine whether our distress signal was sent out before our comms went down?’ asked Nog.

‘Hmm...yeah looks like it’ confirmed Ziyal.

‘Assuming DS9 is going to be sending some help, we just have to evade the Tholians until they arrive’ said Nog. 

‘And how do we do that?’ asked Jake, not unkindly but with an urgency in his voice. ‘Our shields are down to 15%, we can’t take more than a couple hits, not from those torpedoes at least.’

The craft shook again, but not as severely as before.

‘Torpedo exploded 300m off the portside.’ said Jake, reading the sensor display. Nog could see the tension growing on his friend’s face. Jakes brows were knitted, and his eyes betrayed his fear. ‘They’re gaining on us’ 

‘Can we get a signal out to DS9 again?’ asked Nog.

‘Not without giving away our position.’ said Ziyal. ‘Besides, DS9 should be able to get a ship here in about 2 hours’

‘Can’t we just go to warp? Maybe we can outrun them?’ suggested Jake.

‘No. The local matter density is too high. We’d have to get to one of the lower density regions, or ideally just out of the whole nebula itself before we can safely use the warp engines’ replied Nog. 

A sudden blast light up their viewscreen in a white flash and shook the interior of the craft violently. It threw Jake and Nog on the floor and Ziyal hit the portside wall with a dull thud. 

‘They’re attempting to penetrate the shields with some sort of targeted ion beam’ said Ziyal scrambling back to the main console, her ears ringing loudly from the hit. 

‘How are the shields holding up?’ asked Nog, jumping back into the pilots seat. ‘Jake, are you okay?’

Jake was still sprawled on the floor clutching his head. ‘Yeah..ahh I’m fine. I think.’ He managed to reach his former position in front of the console but could feel the room spinning around him. Nog frowned, mentally adding a possible concussed Jake to his list of problems. 

‘Sensors show that shields holding steady at 15% but…the beam is still getting stronger’ said Ziyal bewildered at the readings. ‘At this rate, that beam will fully penetrate shields in less than a minute!’

‘Could it be some kind of new weapon maybe?’ asked Jake, nursing a sore spot on his head.

Nog suddenly recognised the beam’s signature. ‘It’s a modified transport beam. They don’t need to totally disable our shields; they just need a small window!’ he shouted. ‘Jake can you take the amulet closer to the engines? Their radiation should provide enough interference to stop them from getting a clean lock. There’s a medkit down there too.’

Jake nodded; luckily the room had slowed its spinning. He grabbed a dark box from one of the storage lockers and began to sprint towards the engines. But it was too late. Nog and Ziyal watched in silent horror as their friend vanished in a haze of green specks. 

Ziyal felt a rising panic in her chest. The true gravity of the situation hit her hard. Before this moment it had seemed perfectly possible for them to escape unharmed. They were successfully evading their pursuers and help was on the way. But things had taken a rapid turn for the worse. Jake’s abduction had made the true stakes of the situation suddenly very clear.

Another sharp crash hit the ship, Nog and Ziyal clung to their seats as the ship violently rocked and the main lights sparked and were cut out. The engines powered down with a fluttering whir and emergency lights flickered on, illuminating the craft in a ghostly pale colour. They were dead in the water. 

‘Damn it.’ swore Nog, trying desperately to get something, anything online. But the console read-outs were bleak. Engines, dead. Weapons, dead. Shields, dead. 

‘Sensors are still functional’ said Ziyal in a hollow voice. ‘They’re attempting to restart their engines. Looks like some of our fire power managed hit them.’ 

‘Some good news then.’ replied Nog. ‘I’d say we have about 25 minutes before they’ve repaired the damage.’

‘Can’t we just shoot their engines again?’

‘I’m afraid we are fresh out of torpedos and our other weapons systems are offline. Well more than offline, their fried to the core. The Chief is not going to be happy when I hand in this mission’s damage reports.’

‘So, what your saying is that we have 25 minutes to mount a rescue with a dead runabout?’ 

‘We haven’t exactly been dealt a great hand here.’ 

‘Hand?’ asked Ziyal.

‘Oh. Just an old term from an Earth game Jake taught me.’ said Nog, almost smiling. 

‘We have to try something; we can’t just leave him there.’ Ziyal’s voice cracked slightly at the end of the sentence. 

‘We will.’ said Nog, not entirely optimistic himself. 

‘The Tholians keep their ship at toasty 480 Kelvin, apparently.’ said Ziyal.

‘What?’ 

‘That’s over 200 degrees Celsius. I was just reading the database entry on them.’ Ziyal’s face was lined with concern, her hand creating creases in the fabric of her dress. 

‘Hmm. Well they could have beamed Jake directly into their cargo bay?’ Nog suggested, not quite believing himself. ‘Surely, they wouldn’t bother keeping their whole ship at such a high temperature, it wouldn’t be a very efficient use of heating…’ 

‘I think you might be right.’ said Ziyal, pulling up a schematic of the alien ship. ‘There infrared readings indicate a cold spot, or rather relatively cold I should say, at about 45 C.’ The display showed this with a purple hue superimposed on the blueprints of the ship. 

‘I’m getting one bio sign in that area.’ said Ziyal. ‘It’s got to be him.’

‘Can we get a transporter lock?’ 

‘Too far away. Besides their shields are almost fully restored.’

‘Damn it.’ Nog cursed again and paced around the small length of the room they were in. He wracked his brains for any idea, any morsel of information he might have locked in the recesses of his brain that might just come to his aid at this moment. 

‘Hey’ said Ziyal, with a sudden urgency in her voice. ‘Do you remember that plasma safety demonstration Chief O’Brien gave. You know before the Bajoran gratitude festival last year? You were back from the academy if I remember correctly?’

Nog raised an eyebrow. ‘Yeah, what about it?’

‘Well, the Chief was mainly talking about keeping an eye on errant magnet fields when siphoning gas for the fireworks show, and well…’

‘Well?’

‘We are sitting in the middle of a lot of hydrogen gas.’

Nog blinked. ‘Are you suggesting we ignite this cloud? That would be insane, we be the first to go up!’ His voice reaching a pitch at least a tone higher than Ziyal had ever heard it go. 

‘No, I don’t mean blow ourselves up.’ she replied, a little irritated. ‘Look at this,’ she pointed to a map of their surroundings on the view screen. ‘See that dense cloud formation near the Tholian’s ship? I did a sensor sweep, and it’s part of diffuse storm system that must have passed through this region not long before we entered. 

It’s still sitting on a pretty high voltage.’

Nog furrowed his brow. ‘Ziyal if you have a plan here, you’d better explain it, cause right now all I’m seeing is some interesting geographical scans.’

‘I was thinking we could take out their weapons with a concentrated plasma burst.’

‘I see! If we can somehow increase the voltage of that cloud we could ionise some of the hydrogen. Are you suggesting we use that to create plasma? But how would we control it?’

‘We could focus the ionisation front using the runabouts magnetic field generators’

‘Oh! That’s… a pretty genius idea Ziyal.’ said Nog, impressed. ‘The Chief would be proud.’

‘Thanks,’ she smiled ‘But I’m not sure how to increase the voltage enough for it to start the electrical breakdown process.’ She knitted her brows, typing numbers into the console. 

‘We could modify one of the emergency beacons and fire it into the cloud?’ suggested Nog.

‘That’ll work! Then, once we have our mag field running, we can aim the plasma pulse to hit their engines.’ 

‘They’ll be as dead in the water as we are!’ Nog laughed, ‘All right, you work on fixing up one of the emergency beacons. And I’ll get the ships magnet field up and running’ Nog ran towards the engines of the ship, leaving Ziyal to work on her probe in the console room.


	4. Defiant to the rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Defiant heads into the nebula. Nog and Ziyal complete their plans.

Benjamin Sisko stared out of the mess hall window, his hands clasped tightly behind his back. The dark expanse of space sparkled with stretched lines of stars. He watched as they zipped by at warp speed nine.  
Although he was aware that the ship was making light work of the space between him and the nebula, he couldn’t quite subdue the natural anxiety of a parent for a child just out of reach.

The chirp of his combadge turned his attention from the window.

‘Captain to the bridge. We’re approaching the Nebula.’ came the voice of one of his oldest friends.

‘On my way Dax.’ replied Sisko. He spared a last glance at the window before leaving, the stars had slowed to pinpricks of brightness against the expanse of void once more. 

The jewel-toned clouds of the nebula filled the viewscreen as Sisko entered the bridge. 

‘Any sign of the Ganges, Major?’ he asked, taking the commanding seat. 

‘Not yet, we’re having trouble operating sensors within the nebula. There seems to be some ionic storm fronts causing a lot of interference.’ 

‘Hmm. Dax, see if you can re-route power from auxiliary life support to boost the sensitivity.’ 

Dax nodded and moved to a different console. Sisko returned his gaze to the forward viewscreen, the Defiant’s path had created swirls and eddies in the cloud formations, throwing glimmering reflections of light in all directions. 

‘Captain.’ said Kira, alarmed. ‘I’ve detected weapons fire on the modified sensors. Bearing 112 mark 4.’ 

‘Can you detect the weapons signature? Is it the runabout?’ asked Sisko.

‘The signal's not strong enough sir. I can't identify the signature.’ 

‘Change course to the location of the weapons fire. Full impulse’

The bridge was cloaked in a suspenseful silence, the unwanted image of the wreckage of a runabout slipping into their minds.

* * *

Nog and Ziyal watched as the hot plasma formed at the edge of the Tholians’ ship. It flared its hot white tendrils in unwieldy directions before forming a clear ionisation front.

‘I’m applying the mag field.’ said Ziyal

‘Steadily increase it..’ replied Nog, keeping his eyes fixed on the sensor readouts

‘We’re at 0.5 Telsa’ said Ziyal, cautiously increasing the field strength. Each increment elicited a muted beep from the console.. ‘1…1.5…’ 

‘Hold it there Ziyal, I think that should do the trick’

The collected plasma sparked forward like the tentacle of an eldritch creature and struck the side of the enemy ship. Sound didn’t carry through the vacuum of space between the two ships, but the images of the enemy’s ravaged starboard bow were enough to confirm what they had expected. The Tholians weren’t going anywhere soon.

‘That’s a lot more damage than I thought we’d cause Nog!’ said Ziyal.

‘I guess they hadn’t repaired their shields as much as we thought’ replied Nog, glancing over at Ziyal, both shared a grave look. 

‘We should check for human biosigns’ said Nog quietly.

Ziyal nodded and called up an updated schematic of the Tholian vessel. Numerous red spots littered the screen indicating varying levels of damage, but the previous purple region of habitability containing one human bio-sign was still intact. 

They both breathed a sigh of relief.

‘Incoming hail’ said Ziyal.

‘The Tholians?’ asked Nog.

‘No…it’s the Defiant!’

‘Ha ha! Put them through!’

Both Nog and Ziyal felt a well-earned serge of relief at the sight of Benjamin Sisko on their viewscreen.

‘Captain! Are we glad to see you!’ exclaimed Nog.

‘Am I to understand that you two are responsible for that plasma burst we detected?’ asked Sisko, with a raised eyebrow.

‘Yes. It was Ziyal’s idea actually, but we should explain later. Jake was taken by Tholians and we think he’s in their cargo bay’ said Nog. ‘We’ll send you the co-ordinates’ 

Sisko nodded. ‘Stand by, we’ll tow the Ganges into the launch bay’

* * *

Jake awoke with a dizzy start, something cold was covering his eyes. His recent memories failed to gain cohesion leaving him distinctly confused. ‘Urgh, what happened?’ he asked, startled to hear his voice sound so hoarse. He attempted to sit up but someone pressed a hand to his chest and spoke in a gentle but firm tone. 

‘I’m afraid you can’t get up just yet Jake’ 

‘Julian?’ replied Jake, laying back down on what he now assumed was a bio-bed in a sickbay somewhere. ‘Where am I? What happened?’

‘Relax Jake, you’re fine now. We are on the Defiant, that was some stunt Nog and Ziyal pulled back there’ he chuckled.

Nog. Ziyal. The Ganges. Jake’s memory suddenly clicked into place. ‘I was on their ship!’ he shouted.

‘Jake. What was the last thing you remember’ asked Julian, gently removing the cold icepack from his eyes.

‘Erm..’ said Jake. He squinted as his eyes adjusted to the light, Julian’s concerned face swam into view. ‘I..I remember the runabout getting attacked. And then getting beamed over to their ship. It was so hot and cramped. But wait, the Tholians don’t breathe the same atmosphere we do, do they?’

‘No, and they live at temperatures that would cook any human. Lucky for you they beamed you and your amulet straight to what we think is a compartment in the cargo hold. They must have taken some of the atmosphere on the Ganges too’

‘Why didn’t they just beam the amulet away?’

‘Not sure Jake, you might have to ask Jadzia or Miles about that. They were saying something about a modified transporter beam?’.

‘Yeah, I guess I will. Is that for me?’ Jake motioned towards the hypospray the doctor just picked up.

‘Yes. I’m afraid you suffered some severe heat exhaustion in that cargo hold, and on top of that you have a mild concussion. This should help with the pain,’ he said as he pressed it onto Jakes’ neck, ‘but I want you to remain on bed rest for the time being.’ 

Jake nodded, he felt the medication swim into his muscles, relieving the tension he didn’t realise he was holding. 

The sickbay doors opened with a gentle woosh. ‘Jake?’ said a soft voice. 

‘Over here Ziyal’ Julian waved at her. ‘I’ll let you two get caught up, shall I? I’ll be on the bridge if you need me.’ said Julian as he left. 

‘Hey Ziyal, I heard you and Nog managed to fight a Tholian ship with just one runabout?’ he laughed.

Ziyal smiled and crossed arms. ‘Yeah…that was definitely something.’ She felt a pang of hurt as she saw how weak he still was, laying there on the bio-bed.

‘It’s okay Ziyal, Julian says I should make a full recovery’ he smiled, trying to relieve her worries.

She moved closer to him. The pair shared a glance that held their unspoken tension like a tight thread. ‘Jake when that plasma pulse hit the ship…I wasn’t sure whether it had….’ Her voice began to crack. ‘It’s just, it was a lot stronger than we anticipated. There was a moment when we thought…you-’. Ziyal looked away as tears started to flow down her face.

‘It’s okay Ziyal.’ said Jake in a gentle voice. ‘I’m fine, your fine, Nog’s fine. We all made it. Taking risks is part of any mission. Just ask Nog! The Tholians might have gotten away if you had done nothing. And Julian said I had severe heat exhaustion, if you hadn’t acted, I probably would have died in that cargo hold.’

Ziyal’s face was lined with concern as she met his eyes. Jake reached for her hand and gave a light squeeze. She smiled back at him, brushing away the tears with her spare hand.

‘Is my Dad okay?’ asked Jake changing the subject.

‘He’s just fine, I’m afraid the Tholians weren’t too happy about things being beamed off their ship so the Captain is currently in the middle of some negotiations. Nog’s there too. I think they’re just trying to keep the peace with the Tholians. But I’m sure they’ll both come straight here after it’s all sorted out.’

‘Ah right, that makes sense.’ Jake laughed. ‘Oh, and one last thing Ziyal.’

‘What?’ 

‘Remind me never to help Quark with his _schemes_ again.’ 

The pair burst out laughing, melting away the last vestiges of their worries. 


	5. Debriefing with the Kai

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Captain Sisko deals with an irate Kai Winn and mysterious Bajoran prophesy.

‘And what gave you the right to hand over a sacred Bajoran artifact?’ Kai Winn sat forebodingly at the head of the conference table; her beady eyes trained in a fierce frown at Benjamin Sisko.

The meeting had been going for almost 45 minutes and Captain Sisko had explained the same scenario one too many times. He clenched his fists under the table. ‘Respectfully Kai, I had to do what was in the best interest of my ship and crew. The Tholians were not willing to negotiate for the release of the amulet and we detected 3 additional battle cruisers on long range sensors. I’m afraid even the defiant would have been out matched.’

‘Also, we did not want to risk a diplomatic incident with the Tholians, they have a reputation for being an extremely xenophobic species’ added Kira. 

Kai Winn shook her head, clearly still displeased. ‘And why did you think it would be a good idea to send this boy-,’ she glared at an already quite nervous cadet Nog, ‘in the place of an actual qualified officer?’

‘Well, at the time we were not aware of the magnitude of the significance of this artifact.’ replied Sisko. ‘In fact, you still haven’t told us exactly what is so important about this particular amulet, as opposed to all the other artifacts recovered from the Cardassians.’

‘Indeed.’ She huffed and rolled her eyes. ‘Solbor’ she said, with an impatient wave of her hand. ‘Bring me your translations of the 3rd manuscript we uncovered at the ruins of Ba’lar’. 

An older man who had until now been lingering in the corner of the conference room, scurried to her side. He brought with him a bundle of parchment paper wrapped in a cloth and laid it out on the table. 

'Solbor as been working on these translations since shortly after the city was uncovered.’ Kai paused, leafing through the stacks. ‘Ah, here it is’ she pointed one stout finger to paragraph half way down the page. ‘Solbor, if you will explain.’

Solbor cleared his throat. ‘This passage is titled “The completion of the orb of time”. Here the ancient prophesiers are describing a battle between the Pah Wraiths and the prophets for all time. The Pah Wraiths want to extend the celestial temple to include Bajor, to capture all its people for all time. The phrase ‘for all time’ is a repetitive motive.’ Solbor pointed to several spots on the page with a keen interest. The subtle nuances were not picked up by any of the others. ‘In fact, time is an interesting theme that runs through a lot of text from the year-’

‘Solbor please!’ said the Kai sharply. ‘We don’t need to hear everything, just explain to the captain what a grievous error of judgement he has just made.’

‘Err right. My apologies Kai. The main conclusion of the text is that there exists a part of the orb of time or rather the exact translation is “broken light”. It was encased in the rock which is part of the amulet. The prophesiers predict that if the amulet and orb of time are not reunited within a certain time, an era of darkness will befall Bajor and all its people.’ 

Sisko glanced over at Major Kira, who was looking at the parchment with an expression of great concern. His mind returned to the last time he was met with Bajoran prophesy. The Reckoning. He nearly lost his son. He thought back to the red glow in Jake’s eyes, the otherworldly look on his face that wasn’t quite his face at that moment. The thought of dealing with the Pah Wraiths again sent a shiver down his spine. 

‘Captain?’ asked Kira. Everyone was looking at Sisko expectantly.

‘Well Emissary? Are you going to dispatch a search for the amulet? Or are you willing to let Bajor endure endless suffering?’

Sisko looked conflicted. ‘I’m afraid I’ve received orders to keep the defiant close to DS9 for the time being. With the Dominian threat, Starfleet wants at least one battle ready ship on standby at all times.’

‘Well, I guess it was too much to hope that the great Emissary would put Bajor’s needs first’ said Kai Winn, standing up. ‘We will see what the Bajoran people have to say about that.’

‘Kai please try to understand, its out of my hands! I will contact Starfleet as soon as I can but I can give you no guarantees.’

‘Of course.’ Replied the Kai, with a scowl. ‘Come along Solbor.’ she said as they both exited the conference room. 

Sisko sighed and put his head in his hand.

‘Captain, I think my Uncle Quark might know something about them…he err, well I overheard him talking about Tholians and...’

‘Ha! Somehow, I suspected he might be involved in all this. Ensign, I suggest you let your Uncle know I’ll be asking him some questions soon.’

‘Yes sir’ replied Nog, all too eager to be leaving the table. 

* * *

The younger Sisko walked purposefully through the promenade. As much as he enjoyed Dr. Bashir's company he was excited to be finally released from the monotony of sick bay confinement. He smiled to himself with a renewed gratitude for his life on the station. People from so many different worlds passed him by. Lobes, forehead ridges and transparent skulls alike, everyone seemed to be at home on DS9. He watched as a little Bajoran boy attempted to eat a Jumja stick the size of his head alongside a fiery Klingon girl doing beginner batleth moves with fork. He laughed. Where else in the quadrant could you see that, he thought. After his incident with the Tholian cargo bay, even the packed lunch rush at the replimat seemed appealing. He was about to walk past it, in favour of the Klingon restaurant further ahead, but something caught his eye. 

‘Hey Ziyal!’ he waved noticing her sitting at the back of the replimat and made his way to her table. She looked up and smiled but quickly put her gaze back to something that was laid out in front of her. As he approached, he saw a sprawling cacophony of colours that he couldn’t recognise. Then getting closer he realised what they were. Pictures! Several of them in chaotic order spread all across the table.

‘Oh! These are from your new holo-camera?’ exclaimed Jake, recognising the Regala nebula.

‘Yeah’ replied Ziyal. ‘I thought I would try to capture these in a pretty retro way, you know? Old fashioned print photography! I got the idea from Keiko actually.’ She seemed to have arranged them in an intricate pattern of cloud colour and formation. Jake watched intently as she deftly moved them around the table, pausing only for a few seconds at time to evaluate the arrangement. 

‘Huh.’ replied Jake mesmerised by her work, he went to pick up a photo at the edge of the table and immediately felt his hand get slapped away. ‘Ow! Why did you do that?’ he said, nursing his stinging hand.

‘It’s not like a PADD Jake, the oil from your fingers can ruin the picture. You can hold it, but by the edges like this.’ She lifted one, delicately holding her fingers to the corners. 

‘Okay! Let me try...Oh here’s one of me!’ Jake reached out, this time with care, and picked up a picture of him and Nog deep in conversation at the console of the runabout. ‘I hadn’t realised you were taking a picture.’ he smiled at the funny look on his face, probably confused by some technobabble or Starfleet procedure he had forgotten. ‘Ha! This is really great Ziyal!’ 

‘In fact, so are all of these.’ He motioned to rest of the table. ‘I don’t know how you did it, but some of these nebula shots they’re just...’ he trailed off, picking up a particularly vibrant shot of a gas cloud glowing in 3 different shades of blue. ‘I mean, I don’t remember them looking that beautiful even when we in the middle of it all.’

Ziyal blushed, ‘Thanks.’ she replied. She looked up at him and Jake's heart skipped a beat as he found himself staring right back.

‘JAKE!’ came a shout from behind him. Plucking both Jake and Ziyal out of the reverie of the moment. A panting Nog followed the shout. He stopped, breathing heavily and leaning on Jakes shoulder for support.

‘Hey Nog what’s going on? How’d the debriefing with the Kai go?’

‘Hooo...NOT great Jake....not...great’ Nog replied between breaths.

‘Here, sit down you need a drink’ said Jake, pulling out a chair. 

‘Thanks....I’ll sit but ....no time for a drink, I have to tell Uncle Quark something before he gets into too much trouble.’ 

‘Helping Quark again?’ laughed Ziyal. ‘Thought we learned better.’

‘Yeah, well it's Captain's orders this time. Oh, hey what’s all this?’ Nog had calmed down enough to see the chaos of pictures strewn in front of him. 

‘It’s the nebula, Nog. Look!’ Jake showed him a vibrant jewel toned cloud formation. ‘Hold it like this’ he demonstrated the proper technique, earning an approving smile from Ziyal.

‘Wow!’ He stared at the image; head tilted with thought. ‘You really have an eye for beauty!’ 

‘Thanks Nog!’ replied Ziyal.

Nog replaced the photo and jumped back to his feet. ‘Right! I’d better go!’ He took off with a sprint in the direction of Quarks bar. 

A flash of light caught Ziyal’s attention. ‘Oh! I do love it when the wormhole opens.’ She looked up and out of the window by the upper promenade. 

‘Huh?’ replied Jake, turning to see the view. ‘I didn’t realise there was any Gamma quadrant transports scheduled today’. They watched the swirling colours flare. A little brighter and more turbulent than normal, Jake thought.

‘That’s weird. Doesn’t it just close in a few seconds? Why is it still open?’ asked Ziyal.

‘You’re right, I don’t-’ started Jake, when the station lights flickered. Several people gasped and an air of tension had filled the promenade. It wasn’t unusual for technical difficulties to arise on the station but the sudden odd behaviour of the wormhole had people on edge. 

Ziyal suddenly shot upright, hand tensing on the tables as if she needed it for support. ‘Can you feel that, Jake?’ she said with a sharp note of anxiety in her voice.

‘Feel what-’ and then he felt it. Everyone did, a consistent rumbling, a growing shaking of the station.

‘Get under the tables!’ said someone who sounded like Miles O’Brien.

Jake and Ziyal quickly ducked under their table and watched as pictures fell to the ground like a curtain of coloured rain around them. They stayed that way for some time. Huddled and nervous, but glad for each other’s company, clutching at the solid table beam while the station shook. Several minutes passed and the rumbling slowed and eventually stopped. 

‘What’ said Ziyal leaving beat between her words, ‘was THAT?’

Jake heard the chirp of a combadge from behind him. He turned to see it had in fact been the Chief he who had shouted earlier. 

‘Chief report to Ops!’ came the strong but clearly frazzled voice of Major Kira. 

‘On my way.’ replied Miles, jogging towards the nearest turbolift. 

Jake helped Ziyal gather her photos. Some had become wet with spilled food and drinks from the nearby tables.

‘Ah man. Sorry about your photos.’ 

‘That’s ok. I can always make more. I’m glad everyone seems ok though.’ she glanced around as people slowly began clearing up messes and once again hurrying about their business through the station.

‘Yeah. And if they’re not I’m sure it’s nothing Dr. Bashir can’t fix!’ Jake laughed.

* * *


End file.
